Stabilizing Tray For Shipping and Display Stacked Containers

ABSTRACT

A stabilizing tray for shipping and displaying stacked containers has a plurality of indexing openings through its bottom wall for receiving the necks of subjacent containers so that the necks of containers in a lower tray extend into recessed bottoms of containers in an upper tray. The bottom wall of the tray around the openings rests on shoulders of subjacent containers, and indexing notches around the edges of the indexing openings engage with protrusions on the containers to uniformly orient the containers. In one embodiment interlocking tabs and openings in adjacent walls hold the tray in erected configuration, and in another embodiment flaps on the ends of some of the walls are adhered to adjacent walls to hold the tray in erected configuration. The tray front wall has a reduced height and the back wall has an increased height to obscure date codes on the containers.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to trays for shipping containers and displaying them at a point of sale. More particularly, the invention relates to a shipping and display tray that stabilizes the containers when they are stacked, and that discourages removal of containers from other than the top layer in a stack of the containers.

BACKGROUND ART

Containers of liquid products such as bottled water, milk, cleaning products, and the like, are commonly sold in containers having a capacity of one gallon. These larger containers typically are shipped in returnable steel carts or in returnable plastic crates. At the point of sale, the containers generally are removed from the carts or crates for display and sale to the consumer. This method requires shelf space and increased labor and cost for the retailer, as well as increased cost for shipping and storing the carts and crates.

In some instances, the containers are stacked in layers in a paperboard shipping box that is also used to display the product at the point of sale. These conventional shipping and display boxes may have one or more perforated sections that can be removed at the point of sale to expose the containers and make them accessible to a consumer. While this arrangement frees up shelf space and eliminates the need for steel carts or returnable plastic crates, it does not result in an attractive display. Moreover, visibility of the product and access to it is less than desirable.

More open systems have been developed in which containers are stacked on a pallet and shrink-wrapped for shipment to a point of sale. Two such stacks usually are placed side-by-side on a pallet and shrink-wrapped to form a unit load. At the point of sale the shrink wrap is removed, leaving a stack of containers that are highly visible and easily accessible. The containers typically are stacked four layers high, with twenty-eight containers per layer. Substantially flat separator sheets or pads are placed between the layers of containers to support one layer on top of another layer.

These more open systems require the use of multiple pieces of corrugated material, including a bottom tray, a top cap, and six layer pads per stack, with a vertical divider pad between the stacks. In accordance with conventional practice, the trays are erected by hand and the containers are loaded by hand, with the layer pads and vertical dividers being positioned as the unit is built. At the point of sale the units are single-stacked in racks or on the floor of a cooler. The stretch wrap is removed prior to positioning a unit in position on the sales floor, and when containers have been depleted from the front of the unit it is rotated 180 degrees to expose the containers previously located at the back.

The use of such a large number of corrugated parts in the construction of these open systems increases their cost and complexity, both in terms of material requirements and labor in setting them up and using them. Further, these systems lack horizontal stability and the containers of product generally do not face in a uniform direction, reducing the visual appeal of the display. Moreover, the flat separator pads are susceptible to being crushed by the shrink wrap. Additionally, consumers can easily pick product from layers other than the top layer in the stack, potentially making the stack unstable and making it look picked over. This activity generally is the result of date code picking, wherein a consumer looks at the date codes on the containers of product and sorts through the stack of containers to find one having a more recent date code.

Conventional systems for shipping and displaying containers of product such as, for example, one-gallon milk jugs, water bottles, and the like, thus are expensive to make and use, do not provide adequate or optimum display of the containers at the point of sale, enable consumers to pick containers from lower layers in a stack of the containers displayed for sale, thereby making the display appear picked over and making the stacks unstable, and do not have any means for assuring that the containers are all oriented in a uniform direction with their labels facing outward.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system for shipping containers of product such as, for example, one-gallon milk jugs, water bottles, and the like and displaying them at a point of sale, wherein the system is inexpensive to make and use, provides optimum display of the containers at the point of sale, discourages or prohibits consumers from picking containers from lower layers in a stack of the containers displayed for sale, thereby maintaining a neat and stable display, and provides means for assuring that the containers are all oriented in a uniform direction with their labels facing outward.

To accomplish this, the invention comprises a one-piece low-depth tray having means providing interlocking engagement with and between containers in adjacent layers of containers stacked on top of one another, thereby providing horizontal stability to the stack of containers and discouraging or prohibiting removal of containers from other than the top layer in the stack. The tray also includes indexing means for cooperation with the containers to ensure uniform orientation of the containers. The use of a one-piece tray reduces cost, both in terms of reduced labor for setting up a unit and in reduced material compared with the prior multi-part system, while at the same time providing superior performance.

The tray of the invention comprises a bottom wall, upstanding front, back and side walls, and means securing said walls in an upright position. The bottom wall has a plurality of indexing openings through which the necks or tops of containers in a lower layer are received so that the tops of containers in the lower layer extend into a recessed bottom of containers in an upper layer. The openings are sized so that the tray bottom wall surrounding each opening rests on the shoulders of a subjacent container, whereby at least a substantial portion of the weight of the stacked containers is carried through the trays to the shoulders of containers in lower layers. Further, the openings in the bottom wall of the tray may also function as drains to reduce the adverse effects of a leaking container.

The front wall is cut down to a reduced height over most of its length for improved visibility of and access to the containers supported in the tray, and the back wall has an increased height to obscure at least a major portion of containers supported in said tray adjacent said back wall to discourage date code picking. The higher back wall and reduced height front wall preferably are contoured so that during manufacture of the tray one nests within the other in the sheet of material being cut to form blanks for the tray, thereby reducing material usage.

In a preferred construction, indexing protrusions on the upper ends of the containers fit in indexing notches around the edge of the indexing openings to uniformly orient the containers, preferably so that they face outwardly of the stack.

In a first preferred embodiment the front, back and side walls are held in erected configuration by interengaged locking tabs and openings on adjacent walls. Preferably, the locking tabs are inserted inwardly through the openings and folded so that a container placed in the tray engages the tab and holds it in its folded locked position. The nature of the locks would allow the same design to be manually erected or mechanically formed and glued.

Thus, in an alternate embodiment the front, back and side walls are held in erected configuration by adhesive between overlapping portions of adjacent walls.

The rigid corners in the low-depth walled tray of the invention provide better protection against crushing from the shrink wrap and better stability to the containers in the corners of the stack than provided by the flat separator pads conventionally used. The design of the invention also provides control over shopper access to the containers by making it easy to select product from the uppermost front section while restricting access to the lower layers and rear section of the unit. This creates a neater display that does not look picked over. The tray works in tandem with the container, pallet and plastic stretch wrap to create the overall “system” needed to sustain pallet load integrity through the supply chain distribution, as well as during the merchandising and end shopping usage.

In a typical system employing the present invention, there would be four layers of containers in each of two stacks placed on a 40×48 wooden Chep pallet, forming a unit load of 224 one-gallon containers for shipment to a point of sale such as, e.g., a retail center commonly referred to as a club store or a big box store. In this system, eight trays would be utilized, with four trays in each stack and the trays in one stack arranged back-to-back with the trays in the adjacent stack. Alternatively, a half pallet and one stack of four layers could be used. Also, the tray could be changed to accommodate a different number of containers per layer and/or to fit a different pallet size.

In a specific example of the invention, the tray would be made of recyclable corrugated paperboard, preferably 44 ECT C flute coated or treated on at least the upper surface with a water resistant material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing, as well as other objects and advantages of the invention, will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front top isometric view of a system according to the invention wherein two stacks each containing four layers of containers are placed on a pallet, with the shrink wrap removed and one stack complete as shipped and the other stack having one layer and part of another layer removed.

FIG. 2 is a front top isometric view of a tray according to a first embodiment of the invention wherein locking tabs and openings are used to hold the tray in erected configuration

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a blank for making the tray of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a top isometric view showing two fully loaded trays and an empty tray according to the invention resting on a pallet.

FIG. 5 is a top isometric view of two fully loaded trays and an empty tray resting on top, showing how the tops of containers in a subjacent tray extend through the indexing openings in the bottom wall of a superjacent tray.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary top isometric view looking down on one corner of a tray, showing the indexing features on a container and around the indexing opening through the bottom wall of the tray, and showing how a locking tab is oriented so that placement of a container in the corner of the tray would engage the tab to hold it in locked position.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary bottom isometric view looking up at the bottom of a corner of a tray and showing how the bottom wall of a superjacent tray rests on the shoulders of a container in a subjacent tray.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary top isometric view of a plurality of trays according to the invention resting on a pallet and showing how the high back wall of the trays obscures the containers in an adjacent tray to discourage date code picking.

FIG. 9 is a top isometric view of a second embodiment of tray according to the invention, wherein overlapping portions of the front, back and side walls are adhesively secured together to hold the tray in erected configuration.

FIG. 10 is a top plan view of a blank for making the tray of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A first preferred form of the invention is indicated generally at 10 in FIGS. 1-8, wherein a tray 11 has a bottom wall 12, a front wall 13, a back wall 14, and opposite side walls 15 and 16. In the particular embodiment shown, flaps 17 and 18 are on respective opposite ends of the front wall, and flaps 19 and 20 are on respective opposite ends of the back wall. Shaped cuts in each of the flaps form bendable locking tabs 21, 22, 23 and 24 in respective flaps. Openings 25 and 26 are formed through side wall 15 near its opposite ends, and openings 27 and 28 are formed through side wall 16 near its opposite ends. In this arrangement, the side walls 15 and 16 are first folded upwardly, the front and back walls are then folded upwardly and the flaps 17-20 are folded inwardly against the respective adjacent ends of the side walls. The locking tabs 21-24 are then inserted through respective adjacent openings 25-28 and folded downwardly as shown in FIG. 2 to hold the walls in their upwardly folded erected configuration. In this regard, the flaps could be on the ends of the side walls rather than on the front and back walls, and/or the positions of the locking tabs and associated openings could be reversed, but the arrangement shown is preferred.

Further, in the specific construction shown in FIGS. 1-3, it will be noted that the openings 25-28 are square in shape and are diagonally oriented, and the locking tabs 21-24 are correspondingly diagonally oriented and have outwardly curved convex opposite side edges A and B, respectively, so that they fold diagonally downwardly when inserted through the openings, with the convex side edges thereof engaging behind the edges of the openings. Thus, when a container C is placed in the tray it engages the locking tab and holds it in its downwardly folded locked position behind the edges of the associated opening.

The bottom wall 12 has a plurality of uniformly spaced indexing openings 30 formed therethrough, with shaped indexing notches 31 and 32 around the edge of each opening. The openings are sized so that the bottom wall around the edges of the openings in a superjacent tray rests on the shoulders of containers in a subjacent tray. Further, the indexing notches are configured and spaced to cooperate with the upper end of containers C placed in a subjacent tray so that the containers are all uniformly oriented in a common direction, preferably facing outwardly and generally toward the front of the tray in which they are supported. In the particular example shown, the containers C comprise one-gallon milk jugs having a handle H and protrusions 40 on their upper ends. The handles H are adapted to engage in the notches 32 and the protrusions 40 are adapted to engage in the notches 31 around the edges of the respective openings in a superjacent tray.

It will be noted that FIGS. 4-8 show a slightly different orientation of locking tabs 21′-24′ and openings 25′-28′ than that shown in FIGS. 1-3. In FIGS. 4-8 the openings are oriented horizontally and the tabs are connected to fold inwardly and downwardly about a horizontal fold line for insertion through the openings rather than diagonally as in FIGS. 1-3. However, the orientation shown in FIGS. 1-3 is preferred. In all other respects, the tray and its function in FIGS. 4-8 are identical to the tray and its function in FIGS. 1-3.

To produce a two-stack unit load as seen in FIGS. 1 and 4, two trays 11 are placed back-to-back on a pallet P and filled with containers C to form a first layer of containers all oriented in the same direction, with their handles pointed generally toward the front of the tray. A second tray is then placed on top of the containers in the first tray, with the tops of the containers in the first layer projecting through the openings 30 in the bottom wall of the upper tray so that the bottom wall of the upper tray around the edges of the openings 30 rests on the shoulders of the containers in the first layer. To ensure that the containers in the first layer are all properly oriented, the handle H and protrusions 40 on the containers must be engaged in the notches 31 and 32, respectively, in the upper second tray. The second tray is then filled with containers to form a second layer of containers, with the projecting upper ends of the containers in the first layer extending into recesses in the bottom ends of the containers in the second layer. A third tray and third layer of containers are then placed on top of the containers in the second layer, with orientation of the containers indexed as before and the upper tray supported on the shoulders of subjacent containers as before. A fourth tray and fourth layer of containers are similarly placed in each stack to produce the two-stack unit load. In a preferred example of the invention each tray holds 28 one-gallon containers. Thus, there are 224 containers in a unit load having two stacks with four trays and four layers of containers in each. The stacks of trays and containers are then shrink wrapped for shipping.

Although the two-stack unit load in the example discussed above is designed to hold 224 one-gallon containers, a half pallet and one stack of four layers could be used instead. Also, the tray could be changed to accommodate a different number of containers per layer to fit a different pallet size.

A second preferred embodiment of the invention is indicated generally at 50 in FIGS. 9 and 10, wherein the tray 51 is adhesively secured in its erected configuration and is especially adapted to machine set-up. In this embodiment, flaps 52 and 53 on opposite ends of the back wall 54, and flaps 55 and 56 on opposite ends of the front wall 57 are glued to the respective adjacent side walls 58 and 59 rather than using the locking tabs and openings as in the previous embodiment. In all other respects this form of the invention is the same as in the previous form.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail herein, it should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and intent of the invention as defined by the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A stabilizing tray for shipping and displaying stacked containers having a recessed bottom and an upper shoulder with a neck extending upwardly therefrom, wherein said tray comprises: a bottom wall, a front wall, a back wall, and opposite side walls; means securing said front wall, back wall and opposite side walls in an upright position to form a shallow tray; and a plurality of indexing openings through said bottom wall for receiving the necks of containers in a subjacent layer of containers so that the necks of containers in the subjacent layer extend into the recessed bottoms of containers supported on said bottom wall in an upper tray.
 2. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said indexing openings are sized so that the tray bottom wall surrounding each opening rests on the shoulders of containers in a subjacent layer, whereby at least a substantial portion of the weight of the stacked containers is carried through the trays to the shoulders of containers in lower layers.
 3. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 2, wherein: indexing notches are formed in said tray bottom wall around the edge of each said indexing opening for cooperation with protrusions on an upper end of a subjacent container to orient the container in a predetermined direction, said notches being configured so that all containers in a subjacent layer of containers are uniformly oriented.
 4. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 1, wherein: indexing notches are formed in said tray bottom wall around the edge of each said indexing opening for cooperation with protrusions on an upper end of a subjacent container to orient the container in a predetermined direction, said notches being configured so that all containers in a subjacent layer of containers are uniformly oriented.
 5. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said tray front wall has a reduced height for improved visibility of and access to containers supported in said tray.
 6. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 5, wherein: said tray back wall has an increased height relative to at least said front wall for obscuring at least a major portion of containers supported in said tray adjacent said back wall.
 7. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 3, wherein: said tray front wall has a reduced height for improved visibility of and access to containers supported in said tray; and said tray back wall has an increased height relative to at least said front wall for obscuring at least a major portion of containers supported in said tray adjacent said back wall.
 8. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said means securing said front wall, back wall and opposite side walls in an upright position comprises locking openings at the ends of first said walls, and locking tabs on the ends of adjacent second said walls, said locking tabs being engaged in said locking openings.
 9. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 8, wherein: flaps extend from opposite ends of said front wall and said back wall, said locking tabs being formed in said flaps; and said locking openings are formed in said side walls.
 10. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 9, wherein: said flaps are folded against the outside of said side walls; and said locking tabs are inserted inwardly through said locking openings and folded downwardly so that a container placed in said tray engages said locking tab to aid in holding it in its downwardly folded locked position in said locking opening.
 11. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 10, wherein: said indexing openings in said tray bottom wall are sized so that the tray bottom wall surrounding each indexing opening rests on the shoulders of containers in a subjacent layer, whereby at least a substantial portion of the weight of the stacked containers is carried through the trays to the shoulders of containers in lower layers; indexing notches are formed in said tray bottom wall around the edge of each said indexing opening for cooperation with protrusions on an upper end of a subjacent container to orient the container in a predetermined direction, said notches being configured so that all containers in a subjacent layer of containers are uniformly oriented; said tray front wall has a reduced height for improved visibility of and access to containers supported in said tray; and said tray back wall has an increased height relative to at least said front wall for obscuring at least a major portion of containers supported in said tray adjacent said back wall.
 12. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 1, wherein: said means securing said front wall, back wall and opposite side walls in an upright position comprises flaps extending from opposite ends of said front wall and said back wall, said flaps being adhesively secured to adjacent portions of said side walls.
 13. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 12, wherein: said indexing openings in said tray bottom wall are sized so that the tray bottom wall surrounding each indexing opening rests on the shoulders of containers in a subjacent layer, whereby at least a substantial portion of the weight of the stacked containers is carried through the trays to the shoulders of containers in lower layers.
 14. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 13, wherein: indexing notches are formed in said tray bottom wall around the edge of each said indexing opening for cooperation with protrusions on an upper end of a subjacent container to orient the container in a predetermined direction, said notches being configured so that all containers in a subjacent layer of containers are uniformly oriented.
 15. A stabilizing tray as claimed in claim 14, wherein: said tray front wall has a reduced height for improved visibility of and access to containers supported in said tray; and said tray back wall has an increased height relative to at least said front wall for obscuring at least a major portion of containers supported in said tray adjacent said back wall. 